Mercury for 1954 was indeed new, but the biggest news was the see-through hardtop christened the Sun Valley. This model featured a large Plexiglas panel that replaced the forward half of the steel top. A zip-in liner was included to help block the sun on those warm days.
Nearly 80,000 Monterey two-door hardtops were made for 1954, though only a fraction of that number were glass top Sun Valleys. It was a bit of a novelty, and car buyers didn’t warm that much to these unique cars with just 9,761 sold in the USA, and only a few hundred produced in Canada.
